Norwegian Saga

Apologies for the silence.

Let me start with two weekends ago. I spent the weekend of the 25th/26th in the town of Risør (the ø sound is similar to the u sound in English), where Anne’s family has a little townhouse and cottage. It is about a three hour drive one way from Oslo. We arrived on Friday evening.

The reason that we went there though was to attend a “conference” of sorts held by Anne’s brother. He lives near the Risør. He had invited a number of his friends to spend the weekend at his home where they talked and ate all weekend. Anne and I joined in on the fun on Friday and Saturday evening. Anne’s brother managed to convert one of the structures on his property into a meeting/gathering hall complete with long table and fireplace. Since there were quite a few people in attendance (about 10) it would have been hard to fit them anywhere but a double-garage sized building.

In Risør on Saturday Anne and I spent some time at a cafe and doing some shopping, I bought a pair of gloves, Anne bought a sweater (I think). I did take a few photos though. Weekends in Norway are bit trying to my capitalist nature, everything closes early, especially in small towns. On Saturday everything closes at 2pm in Risør (and isn’t even open on Sundays) so one always has to keep an eye on the clock if you want to buy anything on the weekend. I will point to the photos so you can get an idea of what the wonderful little town is like.

Winter

In other news, the cold weather has set in on Norway. It’s gets dark quite early and the temperature is between 0 and 5 degrees C. The sun hovers at the same height above the horizon from 10am to 2pm. It’s a little unnerving. The entire day feels like it’s morning then the sun starts to drop below the horizon, (remember 1700km north of KW). The leaves have all fallen and it’s obvious the population is hunkering down for winter. Everyone talks about the cold more, the clothing people wear is changing. I see (and hear) more and more cars with their winter tires on and the candles are starting to become visible all over the place.

For my part, I have my parka thanks to my parents who sent it to me and I just bought myself a comfy pair of shoes for the winter. Not boots though, those I will buy in Canada. A semi-decent pair of boots here costs 350CAD and I’ve seen prices of 600CAD.

My thesis is coming along nicely. I’ve changed it around a little and since doing so things have become much easier for me. Now just to type up a few pages and submit it.

Oh and I also got a folk number, I think. I applied for one and a few days later I got a number of letters, one from the housing commission letting me know I’d successfully, legally, relocated to Norway (I had to file a paper for that) and another from the tax bureau, I guess they started a file on me. Though I didn’t get anything from the actual folk registry yet.

Btw, I had a bird fly into our flat today while airing out the common room/kitchen. The windows here don’t have bug nets and I guess he got curious. Thankfully the drama ended quickly because after two minutes he found the window again and flew out.